I had a mandatory Hawaiian studies course in college at UH Manoa. The first assignment was to make a family tree and bring it to class and share it. I wasn't too thrilled at the time because it meant that I had to call home to California and get all the information needed. I thought to myself, what's wrong with this teacher? What does my family have to do with Hawaiian studies?
Little did I know it would spark an interest that carries with me today. Something really hit me when I saw ancestors who were born in the 19th century and my investigative side came out when I realized that there were some dead ends in the family tree. I wanted to know more.
My interest was permanently planted on the day my mentor, dean and professor at the school of Journalism at UH Manoa retired. Dr. Bev Keever, one of the first women reporters in Vietnam during the war, a true inspiration to all. She came to speak to us and see us for the last time. We all talked and asked her what her plans were. She said she was going to spend time with her 90 something year old mother since she had devoted so many years to her career. None of us students ever had the nerve to ask her how old she was but we all guessed she was near 80.
Anyways, she pulled us together and told us that in her life she had 2 big regrets:
1) She never kept a diary. As a journalist she was always documenting events but never bothered to document her own life.
2) She didn't document her family's history. She recalled being a little girl in New York and hearing her grandmother talk of traveling in covered wagons. Today, this information would be like gold, but when her grandmother died, all that information went with her.
I'll never forget this day. There I was in my early 20's hearing this amazing woman at the end of her long career talk of her life's biggest regrets. I wanted to make darn certain that I wouldn't have the same ones.
